Underwater
by smile-lifegoeson
Summary: AU. Being set up on a blind date is always nerve wracking. But for Lucy, it's even worse knowing it's possibly the guy she already turned down.


So.. I'm back? I AM SO SORRY FOR BEING GONE FOR ALMOST A YEAR I DON'T HAVE AN EXCUSE.

Like, I hate that I haven't been writing for almost a whole year (my last update was in July. July?!) Seriouly, no exuse except that life is hard and stuff happens. I decided to just start something and here came a new one shot. I'm hoping now that the swing of it is back I can start some updates (*cough* Ice Ice Baby *cough*)

Anyway, here we go! Enjoy my loves :)

 _Fairy Tail_ and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima

* * *

"The aquarium? This is where our date is?" A beautiful blonde woman asked as she stepped out of the black vehicle. Her short skirt rode up even higher, causing her to jump to cover herself before her companion got a peek.

"Yeah, I thought I told you that. They have a café here that's really good," her companion was a handsome young man with dark hair and pale skin. His outfit complimented hers, him wearing dark jeans and white shirt and her with a white skirt and a dark green shirt.

"Well, when you said that I thought you meant we were just meeting her here," Lucy Heartfilia questioned, they were walking to the front gate of the Magnolia Sea World. It was a place she went to on school Feld trips and weekend trips with her friends or mother. Not really a first date kinda place.

Gray Fullbuster snorted, "I told you that they both work here, and since it's a double date and you've never met the guy before that maybe this would make it less awkward. Juvia liked the idea too, plus the food is great."

Pulling her sleeves down to cover her hands, Lucy shivered in the slightly cool morning air. She wasn't opposed to blind dates like this one, especially since it was a double date with her long time best friend and his new girlfriend. But she was nervous, it had been a while since she had met someone she truly liked enough for more than one date. She didn't know if she wanted that today or not.

After paying for their tickets, the pair wondered around the park before heading to the dolphin arena. Gray's girlfriend was the leading trainer and performer for the park, but she was also a marine biologist working behind the stage to take care and study her flippered friends.

"Tell me again how you and miss Lockser met?" Lucy bumped into her now blushing friend. Smirking when he covered his face with his hand.

"Again? Really?"

"This is the first time I'm meeting her and you've been dating for three months already. I want to be prepared to meet this future Mrs. Fullbuster," Lucy said.

Choking on his own tongue, Gray grabbed her arm to make her stop, glaring at her when she laughed at him, "Don't say that! She may be in another town but my mom will still hear you and start planning a wedding!"

"She needs to! The poor woman has a son in his mid-twenties and not even close to being married yet," Lucy sighed, feigning pity for Gray's mother, Mika, who calls him about once a month asking when she'll be a grandmother.

"Lucy!"

"Oh come one, you never know!" Lucy pulled him along to the gate to the dolphin arena, "Maybe this will be the one. I haven't heard you complain about her yet."

"She's… nice," Gray's face changed from its irritated state to one of soft remembrance, but one look at Lucy's giant grin had him groaning, "stop it."

"Okay, sorry" Lucy smiled, deciding to stop her teasing before he got really mad.

"We met here," Gray started, "I was with Lyon and Meldy. It was their son's 4th birthday and he wanted to see the dolphins. We were leaving when Link realized he left one of his toys in the arena. Since he was getting tired I told them I'd go get it."

Lucy grinned, he never realized it but Gray was amazing with little kids. Link adored his Uncle Gray to pieces.

"So when I was looking for our seat again she was in the water feeding them. I…," he blushed, refusing to meet Lucy's eye, " I may have watched her for longer than I should have. Anyway, she saw me and asked if I needed help or anything and I told her my friend's kid lost something and one thing led to another and I got her number."

Pouting, Lucy mumbled, "You're leaving stuff out."

"Well that's all you get," he pointed to right in front of them, "we're here."

The arena was already full of people, mostly children, all anticipating the show that was to come. Lucy and Gray moved up far enough away to be out of the splash zone.

"How many times have you been here since you two started dating?" Lucy asked, making sure her seat was dry and that her skirt covered her whole bottom from the teenaged boys in the back before she finally sat down.

"Maybe once a week. Juvia gave me a pass so I get in free," Lucy raised a slim brow, they had to pay today and sensing her question Gray added, "but I can only use it once a week. I came by Tuesday and had lunch with her."

Nodding at the reason, Lucy patted Gray's knee. She would never make her friends pay her way. Except Gajeel when he invited her to Fairy Tail on nights he performed. She made sure her meal was put on his tab.

"Should start in a minute," Gray muttered, eyeing his watch.

"Eager to see your lady? She teased.

He glared at her, but admitted anyway, "Yeah, actually."

Lucy grinned, happy to see her friend find someone to make him happy.

" **Welcome to the Dolphin Show!"**

The pair turned to look at the pool and saw a woman standing on the island in the middle. She was in a wet suit of blues and whites. Her gorgeous blue curled hair was up in a high ponytail, match that with her bright smile and everyone there knew they were going to have a good time.

"There she is," Gray sighed softly under his breath, wearing a fond smile as he watched at his girlfriend work.

" **My name is Juvia and I'll be your host this lovely afternoon. Is everyone ready to begin?"** Juvia spoke directly into her headset, asking a question that got cheers for her answer, **"Alright then, let's bring out the stars of our show!"**

She spun around and hopped over to the main land. She was joined by A young girl with long blue pigtails and a matching wet suit, **"This is my assistant, Wendy! Wendy let's open the gates."**

The young girl smiled and ran over to the left side as Juvia went to the right. They nodded to one another and opened their gates at the same time.

" **Here's Beast!"** Wendy said as a large and fast dolphin came flying out of the gate, **"Beast is one of our oldest males. But despite his age he is still much larger and much faster than the others, that's where he gets his name."**

"That one always splashes me when I come by," Gray told his friend, "I always end up having to buy clothes from the gift shop so I don't leave here naked."

Lucy scoffed, "Don't blame the dolphin for you losing your clothes."

" **And here comes our fan favorite, Abba!** " Juvia closed her gate and walked to the water, **"Abba has been with us for two years and has recently had her very first calf and today is her first time without her baby so she may be a little rusty and eager to get back to him. He won't be in the viewing tanks for some time, but next summer you'll be able to get a good look at the little guy who we call Pumpkin."**

" **We call him Pumpkin because the day he was born all the employees around were talking about how they wanted a pumpkin spice latte… in the middle of the summer,"** Wendy's joke caused the audience, including Gray and Lucy, to chuckle.

Lucy enjoyed watching Wendy and Juvia feed and play with the magnificent creatures, and what she loved watching more was Gray's facial expressions when Juvia got in the water and rode on the dolphins.

In no time at all, the show was over. And Lucy realized it was now time for her blind date.

"You ready?" Gray asked, helping Lucy down the stairs of the bleachers.

"Y-yeah," she rubbed her arms, pretending to be a little chilled but in reality just trying to calm her nerves.

Gray rolled his eyes at her, she was a terrible liar. He lifted his arm to wave at Juvia. Smiling when she waved back and pointed to a door.

"Ok, we can go back now."

"Go back where?"

Gray led Lucy to a building for employees only, "Juvia is going to shower and change and she said we could wait back here for her. And it may take a minute for your date to get here. He works on the other side of the park."

"Oh," Lucy walked behind him, gaping at the behind-the-scenes of the water park.

"Darling!" A sweet voice drifted over to them, soon followed by the woman who spoke lovingly to her best friend.

"Hey, great show again," Gray hugged her the best he could without getting too wet, then he pushed her beside him, "Juvia, this is my best friend Lucy Heartfilia. Lucy, this is Juvia Lockser."

"Pleased to finally meet you," Lucy was extremely glad to see that she was just as kind in person as Gray told.

"You as well, Lucy!" Juvia waved a little before adding, "Juvia needs to go and shower now so we can eat, I won't be long."

She ran off into the dressing room. Gray shrugged and said, "Every now and then she talks in third person."

"It's cute," Lucy smiled, "I like her."

"I'm hoping you'll still say that after lunch," Gray tugged Lucy over for a half hug, "I like her a lot but I can't have her around if you two don't get along."

"Did I ever tell you that I love you?" Lucy giggled, she and Gray had truly been friends since they were six years old. When mean old Jackal cut off one of her pigtails, Gray hit jackal and got her hair back, even if nothing could be done. Their parents always joked that the two would get together, but they could never love one another more than a friend, and that was alright with them.

"Yeah, you may have mentioned it," he laughed when she smacked him, "I love you too, now stop hitting me already."

"Fine," she crossed her arm to resist the urge, "is Juvia going to be OK with how close we are?"

"I told her you were like my baby sister and that we hang out as much as we can," he shrugged, "she seemed fine with it. She did question me that one time a few weeks ago when I kept taking you food, if something more was going on."

Lucy's eyes widened, she never even thought of that. Lucy was a 2nd grade school teacher and she was having to grade papers for both her and a teacher on maternity leave, plus SAT season was getting close so she was busy with her lesson plans. Gray was being a good friend by bringing her dinner, "I'm so sorry, I never even realized-"

"Nah," he waved her off, "I explained it all to her. She was kinda skeptical, well, she was until I proved how much I'd rather be with her."

His perverted grin got Lucy to shake her head and roll her eyes, "Men."

"So sorry!" Juvia raced out, now in adorable white shorts and a pink blouse, "Juvia went as fast as she could."

"Don't worry about it, that was actually pretty quick," Lucy was jealous of women who could shower and get dressed in less than 20 minutes. But Juvia must be used to it with the work she does.

"Juvia needs to make one stop before we get to dinner, and Lucy's date is not here yet so we will still be waiting."

"No problem," Gray took her hand in hers and let her lead.

"Oh, and thank you Juvia," Lucy walked beside the couple, "for setting me up."

"Absolutely! My darling has told me how much he wants to see you happy and in love and Juvia works with many men who are single," one blue eye winked at Lucy, "and good looking."

"Hey," Gray huffed.

"Well I appreciate it, even if I am nervous."

"Nervous?" the bluenette ignored her boyfriend in favor of talking with what she hoped would be a new friend.

"It's been a while since I've been on any kind of date. I'm scared I won't like him."

"That is the danger of putting yourself out there," Juvia patted Lucy's arm with her free hand, "but Juvia has learned that love is worth that risk."

Lucy nodded, not sure how worth a blind date is, but she was willing to try.

"Ah, here we are," Juvia opened a door to a room with a huge tank. A few people were gathered around, but Lucy saw one person in the tank with a dolphin.

"What's going on?" Gray asked.

"We have one female that is having a difficult time giving birth," Juvia scrunched her brows, thinking about the poor animal, "it's not her first, but other than stress and possibly a larger calf, we don't know for sure what is causing the delay. Juvia wanted to come and check on her before going to eat, if that is alright?"

"Absolutely," Gray and Lucy said together.

Juvia giggled, pulling Gray with her to get closer to the tank, Lucy following close behind. And the closer she got, Lucy slowly recognized the man in the tank, using soothing words with the dolphin.

" _No… is he? Is he my blind date? No. This can't be happening,"_ after getting a clear shot of his face, Lucy panicked, _"It is him, how embarrassing!"_

She couldn't remember his name, but she had met him about a week ago at the bar she always frequented. They flirted for most of the night, but when he asked her to dance she made the excuse that she was a little too tired to dance. He wasn't deterred though, and asked for her number instead. Knowing she had this blind date lined up, she turned him down and said she wasn't looking to meet anyone. On the outside he was perfectly fine and accepted that she said no, but Lucy was rather good at reading people and could tell he was a little hurt by that. And disappointed.

" _Oh… what am I going to do?"_

"Natsu," Juvia called to him, reminding Lucy of his name, how could she forget something so unique? "How is she?"

"She's doing better," he pulled himself out of the water and sat on the edge, "still nervous, think she just wants back with Beast or something."

"Oh Violet," Juvia knelt down to pat the gentle girl on her belly when she asked.

Gray leaned against the tank, unknowingly falling faster for Juvia than he would have liked.

Lucy was too scared to get any closer.

"Jura," Juvia walked over to where a tall bald man was staring at computer screens, she started asking medical questions than went over Lucy's head. Gray followed her over there, leaving Lucy alone with the man she turned down.

He lifted himself up and grabbed a towel to wipe his face. Unlike Juvia during the show, Natsu was only wearing swim shorts. Black with pink hibiscus flowers, the pink matched the color of his spiky hair.

When he used the towel to wipe down his arms, he looked up and saw her standing there. He had the decency to look embarrassed and look away.

Lucy saw his face turn a deep shade of red. She felt awful, maybe she should explain?

"Hi," she walked over and stood next to the tank.

"Uh… Hi, Lucy," he had a small smile on his face and he sat back down with his feet in the water so he could be closer to her.

" _He remembered my name…"_

"So… you're a dolphin trainer too?" She asked, feeling incredibly awkward.

"No, well," he shook his head, "I'm not a trainer but I do get in the water with them a lot. I'm just one of the parks vet's."

"Cool, I wanted to be a vet when I was younger but the blood always freaked me out," Lucy said, she didn't know why she said it honestly.

"It's not so bad, especially with marine life," Natsu reached out and let Violet swim under his hand as she passed by.

Lucy gripped the strap on her purse and boldly said, "I'm sorry, about the other day."

"You ain't gotta apologize," he scratched the back of his head, "don't worry 'bout it."

"I do, because the only reason I said no was because of today…"

"Today?" He looked at her a little funny, she didn't understand why if he was her date, but decided to ignore it.

"Yes, so I just wanted to say I was sorry."

Natsu just stared at the pretty blonde for a moment before smirking, he had been afraid he was being to forward with her. But turns out it wasn't him a all. He waved a hand, letting her know it was alright.

"Not a problem, but hey, if you don't mind me asking… can we maybe... can I have-"

"Juvia! Hey, I'm here!" Lucy didn't get to hear what Natsu asked because of the blond man running up to the group. He was younger than she, that was obvious. Spiky blond hair and a nice smile. He was wearing the parks traditional work outfit, muscles poking out of the too small shirt.

"You aren't late, Sting," Juvia smiled, running to her co-worker and dragging him over to Lucy, "this is Lucy Heartfilia, your date for the afternoon."

Lucy's eyes widened, so Natsu wasn't her date? Her brain stopped working when Sting turned on the charm.

"Hi, Sting Eucliffe. It's been a while since I've met a woman so gorgeous, it may be hard to keep my eyes off of you," Lucy blushed deeply, he kept his eyes on hers the whole time, never moving south.

"Hold it," Gray came over and stood in front of his friend, "you have to impress me before you get a shot at Lucy."

"Oh," the newcomer grinned and said, "how could I forget that you're the most awesome hockey player ever? When Juvia told me who she was seeing, I begged her for an autograph."

Lucy sighed, in no way was Gray oblivious to his fame, he ignored it mostly. But certain comments really riled him up. And that was the best way to get him off topic.

"Hockey fan, huh? May not be so bad for you to date the guy, Lucy," Gray winked at his sister-figure.

"Thanks, Gray," Lucy shook her head, not surprised at all.

"Well shall we go?" Juvia asked rather excitedly. After three nods she turned to say goodbye, "I'll be back after lunch, Jura! Take care of her, and call if you need me Natsu."

Wincing, Lucy slowly turned to look at the pink haired vet. Almost forgetting he was there, and what they were talking about before Sting came in.

His back was turned so she couldn't see his face, he was splashing the water some to get Violet's attention. She frowned, actually saddened that he wasn't her date.

"Come on, Lucy," Gray placed his hand on her back and lightly pushed her towards the door.

"Yeah," she shot her eyes over to Natsu one last time before leaving for her blind double date.

"You OK over there?" Jura called over to Natsu.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm good," he murmured. She had a date today with Sting, that's why she turned him down.

Shaking his head, he couldn't let his head get distracted with being upset over a girl. He had a job to do and a dolphin to take care of.

But he couldn't shake off the disappointment he felt. Glancing over his shoulder, he watched the last strand of blonde hair leave the room.

" _I guess it wasn't meant to be,"_ he sighed, coming to terms that romance just wasn't in the stars for him.

* * *

Elsewhere, the group slowly walked through the crowd to get to the little café. Gray and Juvia led the way, holding hands and telling each other about their day. A giant smile on her face as she retold a funny story about how her coworker was pushed into the water by a sea lion. A snort of laughter escaping him as he watched his enthusiastic girlfriend.

Lucy watched them with envious eyes. How lucky they were to find someone to have an easy relationship with. Her date on the other hand was talking about his band. He and his friends started a rock band in high school and they still did gigs on the weekend when they could all get together.

"Rogue and me and have been friends since, like, the 1st grade. People used to say he was my shadow, he was always behind me on our adventures so it kinda made sense. I was always the leader," he puffed his chest out some.

"That's great," Lucy said through her teeth. She was desperate to correct his grammar.

"We actually get to play down at Fairy Tail next weekend, why don't you come? I can get you a backstage pass," he winked at her, like he was promising her a grand tour of the palace.

"Oh, um, that's fine. I actually go to Fairy Tail all the time, I'm really familiar with all the workers there," that was actually the place where she met Natsu.

"Oh yeah? Well I'm sure they'd let ya come see a prime act then," he placed his hand on her lower back, guiding her to the doors of the café they finally made it to.

"If I have time, I'll come watch you," she grimaced, " _Not to self, never accept blind dates ever again."_

It wasn't that he wasn't nice or attractive. But he was talking about himself a lot. He hadn't asked her anything about… well, anything. And granted, they hadn't sat down yet, but she would expect him to at least ask 'how are you?'.

"Oh, Juvia adores this restaurant," Juvia said as they all sat down. Thankfully they were at a table and Lucy wouldn't have to sit directly next to Sting.

"I do too, best place in the park!" Sting added.

"I've had it once," Gray opened his menu before turning to Lucy, "I promise you'll like it. They have some spicy sauce with shrimp that you'll probably like."

"Oh yuck," Sting stuck out his tongue in disgust, "you eat spicy food a lot?"

Another point against him, he couldn't even be respectful of her likes and dislikes, "Every now and then, I don't care about a lot of spicy foods. But once in a while I get a craving for it," she laughed and nudged her friend, "and somehow Gray always knows when those times are."

"It tells me when you're on your- OW! Woman!"

He glared at Lucy, rubbing his probably bruised arm now.

"Don't talk about that stuff at the table," Lucy's face was bright red, how dare he bring up her period at the table! Around strangers!

Juvia giggled, "It's nice to see you together, Gray always said you were like his little sister. It's wonderful to see that you see him as an elder brother Lucy."

She flicked Gray on the nose, "And it is rude of Gray to mention a ladies private problems around men she does not know."

Lucy blushed but quickly said, "Thank you, Juvia."

Juvia nodded, grinning when she went on, "Actually, you won't be the only person who likes the spicy shrimp sauce. Natsu, the man in the pool with Violet, he loves spicy and hot foods. I think he carries hot sauce wherever he goes."

Lucy's eyes widened, really, Natsu?

"Gross," Gray shook his head. But it was to be expected, the man could walk around nude in a blizzard while eating a snow cone.

Sting shrugged, "It's totally weird. I mean, I like the guy and all, but does he have to obsess over it? He's even trying to make his own kind of hot sauce."

"He is?" Lucy was impressed, she never would expect him to be the kind to make his own creations.

"It is not weird!" Juvia smacked Sting's arm, "Natsu is a lovely cook, and he is very close to finishing his own hot sauce. He plans on selling it to the local markets."

"That's awesome," Lucy glanced down at her hands in her lap. If she was on a date with Natsu, she could be asking him all kinds of questions about what spices he used and how many times he made a terrible concoction. It would have been fun…

"Eh, so he cooks. He can't hold a tune," Sting whistled a little song that his band recently wrote. But his three table mates ignored him.

Lucy wasn't too impressed by singers, her mother could play the piano and taught Lucy, but even In high school she never understood why people wanted to sing or play an instrument. She loved more what she could come up with her imagination in her writing. Or what people could do with their hands in art or cooking.

Moments of silence passed by as they each picked out a meal and placed their order. Lucy was surprised Sting said he liked this place, he ordered a simple burger… off the kids menu.

"So Lucy, Gray said the two of you went to prom together your senior year," Juvia questioned, placing her hands beneath her chin, "does he dance well?"

Lucy giggled, holding back how badly she wanted to laugh at Gray's desperate plead on his face, "He's not… bad. Not as bad as our friend, Laxus. He tried but just couldn't do it."

"To give him credit, Laxus was trying to impress another girl and was actually nervous that day," Gray pointed out.

"Why was he dancing with you, then?" Sting raised an eyebrow, and Lucy got a weird vibe coming from him.

"It was for coronation court," Gray spoke up, not liking the way Sting looked at his best friend, "Lucy was the runner up for Homecoming queen and where we went to high school the King danced with each girl on the court before dancing with the Queen."

"How sweet," Juvia gushed.

"Mirajane was the queen that year, and Laxus wanted her to see that he wasn't just all muscles on the football field," Lucy snickered, she did her best to give him a pep talk since he had to dance with Mira after her. It must have worked too, since they started dating a few days later and are happily married now, "Did you know they're expecting a baby?"

"Yeah," Gray grinned, "Gramps is pretty happy, I bet."

"Oh definitely," their old school principal was probably over the moon with the idea of a great-grandbaby.

"Oh, Juvia just adores babies," she squealed, then she began to tell Lucy about her friends who had twins and how she babysat all the time. The women were really hitting it off.

Sting didn't like that Lucy was ignoring him. He was going to intervene right when the food arrived. He could hardly believe she actually liked spicy foods. Women were supposed to like salads and light meals so that they would appear weak so men like him could be all manly. He glanced over and grimaced at Juvia's meal. She was eating salmon and steak. That was way too much for a woman. But it didn't bother her boyfriend at all. Why not? Juvia was as girly as girls got, and yet she ate so heavy? He just didn't understand.

"Everything ok?" Lucy asked her date, even though she didn't like him she wanted him to have a nice time.

"Great," Sting tore into his catfish dinner, "just great."

Lucy leaned back, a little uneasy. She looked over at Gray, silently asking if he saw it too. Apparently he did, his eyes were locked on the young blond.

"So," Juvia could feel the tension and stepped in, "what made you want to be a teacher Lucy?"

Deciding to go with Juvia's distraction, Lucy began to talk about her love of reading and how much seeing a child learn and want to learn brought her so much joy. She told Juvia how her mother was also a teacher and taught Lucy early on why she loved it so much that it made Lucy love it as well. She would have kept going if her date hadn't said something that took away every chance of a second date ever happening.

"But school is so boring," he groaned, "even if they're like 6 or 7, no kid likes going to school."

"Sting!" Juvia was appalled, here her new friend was telling them about her job and why she loved it and he, her date, just insulted it."

Gray was on the verge of throwing his water at the mans face. He may not have liked school very much growing up, but he knew how much Lucy loved it so he respected her, like any friend would, and let her go on and on about it. Sting was no way the right man for his little sister.

"It's ok," Lucy closed her eyes and counted to 10, "not everyone likes school. And that's ok. It's my job to make sure they at least pass even if they don't like it, and the ones that do I can encourage them to do more."

Sting shrugged, done with the conversation now. Juvia turned around and looked at Gray, apologizing with her eyes for setting him up with Lucy. Gray smirked, shook his head, grabbed Juvia's hand to kiss it and whispered, 'It's not your fault'.

The lunch continued, Sting stayed quiet as Juvia and Lucy got to know one another, Gray commenting every now and then. When the check came, Gray paid for Lucy's too. Not trusting her date to pay for her now that he wasn't even trying.

"That was wonderful, thank you my darling," Juvia pecked him on the cheek, they were walking back to the dolphin arena for Juvia to get back to work.

"Well, I gotta head the other way," Sting announced, he stood before Lucy, smiling, "sorry about insulting your job. You still wanna come and watch me at Fairy Tail?"

Normally Lucy would accept any kind of apology, but he barely sounded let alone looked sincere. She shook her head, sadly smiling, "Sorry, I don't think I will."

"Oh," he leaned forward a bit, getting into her personal space, "then how about I get your number instead? So we can have a proper first date."

Lucy raised her brown, why on earth would he think she would give him her number?

"Uh, not today, I'm sorry," she side stepped him and speed walked to Gray's side.

"Okay, maybe next time!" Sting never got the hint, but he headed the other way to go back to work.

"Juvia is so sorry, Lucy," Juvia hugged her new friend, "If Juvia had known how Sting acted around dates she never would have set you up. He said he was looking for a date and it was right after Gray said he wanted to find someone for you to date so I thought it would work. Oh, Juvia is so sorry-"

"Juvia, it's ok," Lucy laughed and hugged her back, "believe me when I say I've had worse dates."

"Yeah, you should have seen her when she went on a date with Loke," Gray snorted.

"Hey, he's your friend," Lucy joked.

"Yeah, he is now. But after hearing he tried to sleep with you on the first date I wasn't too thrilled with the guy," Gray grabbed Juvia's hand, "that's why you haven't met him yet. Or possibly ever."

"Oh but Juvia wants to meet all of Gray's friend!" Juvia wrapped a hand around her boyfriends arm, "Juvia is sorry again, Lucy."

"Don't worry about it," Lucy waved her off.

"Well, Juvia needs to return to work. I have one more show before the day is over," Juvia kissed Gray's cheek again, "walk me back?"

"Sure," Gray gazed over at Lucy, "wanna come with us or head to the truck? I won't be too long."

"I'm actually going to go to the gift shop and look around," Lucy waved and headed in the opposite direction of the couple, "I'll meet you there. It was nice to meet you Juvia!"

"You as well, Lucy! We'll have to meet up again soon!"

"We will!" Lucy smiled, it was always nice to meet new friends. At least Juvia was somewhat calm, nothing like Erza.

* * *

" _Well, this date was a bust,"_ Lucy thought to herself as she walked through the park, it wasn't like she was expecting much. But it had been so long since she had actually had a boyfriend. She was getting pretty lonely.

Right before Lucy entered the doors of the gift shop, she saw a familiar pink head.

"Natsu?" she had a feeling in her gut that she couldn't ignore, so she ran with it, "Hey, Natsu!"

Natsu had a face full of a cookie he stole from Wendy and was unable to say anything as Lucy literally ran into him, knocking them both to the ground.

Hacking up some of his cookie, Natsu stood and pulled Lucy up with him, "You ok?"

Lucy dusted herself off, and got a good look at him too. This time he was dry, wearing white shorts and a blue tank top. Oddly enough he was wearing a scarf too. It was still chilly outside but it just didn't match what else he was wearing.

"I'm OK, sorry for running into you."

"Nah, no biggie," he grinned a beautiful smile that lit up his face, "so how was your… date?"

Lucy crossed her arms, biting her lip at the look on his face. It was… jealousy?

"Fine. The food was amazing, my date wasn't," she gazed up at him, she didn't know he was so tall.

"I coulda told you that," Natsu copied her and crossed his arms, "Sting ain't really the kind of kid any girl should date, not 'til he grows up some at least."

"Most likely," she moved from foot to foot, not wanting to stay still, "so are you done for the day?"

"Nope. Just lunch," he scratched the back of his head, "bout to head back."

"I see," looking at her watch, Lucy was surprised it was so late, she needed to get home and grade some papers before Monday.

"So, um," Natsu felt pretty nervous now, she was even prettier in the sunlight, "I'll see you around, maybe?"

That gut feeling was back. The sound of his voice was the same as when he asked for he number.

"Yeah, actually," she dug through her purse, pulling out a pen and a notebook.

Natsu displayed shock on his face as she gave him a paper with her number on it, "Um, what?"

"I feel bad about saying no before," she hugged her arms around her middle, "I already knew I had a bling date today and I didn't want to get your hopes up in case I liked him."

"So… you're giving me your number?"

"Yes," Lucy felt a blush reach her ears, just now realizing how forward she was being.

"Yosh! I'll call you tonight then," he pocketed the number and kept smiling at her, "you still owe me a dance, by the way."

An idea popped into her head, "How about next weekend? At Fairy Tail? I hear a decent band will be playing."

"What? Sting's band?" Natsu had a feeling this was the start of the most beautiful relationship, "As long as I get a slow dance out of it, that's good to me."

"Sounds good," Lucy smiled, actually looking forward to her next date, Natsu was adorable and sexy. She regrets saying no before.

"Alright, see ya then, Lucy!" he ran backwards waving before taking off back to where they first met. But he skidded to a stop so he could yell at her, "How about our second date be here? I could introduce ya to Violet!"

Before Lucy could respond he was already running off. Lucy was ok with that, after all, if she wanted to fall for him, she'd have to fall underwater too.

* * *

The ending is a little fast and cheesy, but it has been a while since i've wrote anything plus i'm getting a headache but I wanted to finish!

Note about Sting. I LOVE STING. I don't think he would be like that at all. Just changing up who I use for Lucy's dates, haha.

I may make a second chapter of this, maybe not. depends on how much you guys like it. I do gotta do some updates before anything tho!

It's so good to be back :)


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